The Evolution of a Video Program – Phase 1

Last month Liveclicker’s Senior Video Strategist, Kenna Hilburn, and Liveclicker’s Director of Marketing, Jen Fahey, teamed up to discuss best practices on how to manage and grow your video program over time in the webinar, “The Evolution of a Video Program.” Today, I will be covering the 1st step to program growth and optimization in phase 1 -- getting content on your site for the first time.

Phase 1 -- Getting content on your site for the first time

Whether you are creating your videos in house, using an agency, or sourcing the videos directly from the manufacturer, your first step in establishing your video program is to decide which products you should target with video.

1. Decide which products should have video

To do this, Kenna recommends you start with a sample of 10 -- 100 products (depending on how many products you sell), and create or acquire videos for those products and publish them to your product page. To narrow down this product list, examine the top most viewed items on your site, your most returned items and items that require a demonstration. Creating videos for these items will ensure that your videos will get traffic which will add clarity to the data you collect down the road.

Below is an example video from Brookstone showcasing their Virtual Keyboard. Some products are self-explanatory, but others like this virtual keyboard -- which is pretty hard to explain with just images -- rely on video to show the product in action. Brookstone relies heavily on video because a large part of their product line is meant for someone to try-out in the store -- like massage chairs, robotic devices, or accessories that turn your iPhone into a projector. Video can really fill in the gaps for this type of product.

2. Place video in a prominent position on your site

Once you’ve solidified your product list and created or acquired the videos, you’re ready to get that content up onto your product page. You will want to place the video in a prominent place on your page -- especially if you’ve never featured video on your site before -- to help grab the customer’s attention.

The Buckle displays a perfect example of strong product page placement. As you can see, the video is located above the fold with a strong video call-out. The video is placed in the same posistion as the hero image. The hero image takeover is becoming quite popular and performs well.

3. Analyze your videos

Once you have your placement up, you will want to run a 45-60 day test at minimum and then analyze the performance. For this analysis, you will want to look at the following metrics:

Engagement rates -- How much of the video is the user watching? Are the videos too long or too short?

Average Order Value -- AOV for video watchers vs. average site AOV

Conversion rate -- Compare similar products with and without video

Liveclicker helped Zales conduct an engagement rate study, and found some valuable results for the video below. Early on in the Zales video program, we noticed that the jeweler’s videos had a play-through rate of 100+ to 200% -- which seemed incredible! After further consideration, we came to the conclusion that this was happening because their videos were TOO SHORT, and the customer was having to replay them several times to get the information they needed. This was in turn, diluting their conversion metrics. We were able to enable a looping function on their product page player that allowed the video to continue playing until the user closed it out. The Zales team began modifying their content making their new videos longer to create a better experience for the customer.

To learn more about all 5 phases of the “Evolution of a Video Program” webinar, watch the entire presentation here. Also, stay tuned for my upcoming blog post on phase 2 -- exploring different types of content.

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Justin Foster

Justin is Co-Founder and VP Market Development of RealTime Email at Liveclicker. Prior to Liveclicker, Justin led the services practice for WhatCounts, Inc., an email marketing services provider, where he was responsible for client strategy and deliverability. He also founded the Email Marketing Roundtable, an industry discussion forum that represents over 1,500 email marketers worldwide including the majority of the largest online retailers in North America.